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'First, make a list of your overall top-20 artists. Then, for each of these artists, add the 8 most similar artists to your list. Delete any duplicates, add up the number of entries on your list and this will give you some idea of how eclectic your listening habits are. A score of 9 represents an extremely unvaried musical taste while a 160 represents an extremely varied one.'

FOR centuries the ancients believed the earth was flat. Evidence to the contrary was either ignored or effortlessly integrated into the dominant world view. Today we dismiss flat-Earthers as ignorant, yet we may be making an almost identical mistake – not about our planet, but about the entire universe.

When it comes to the universe, "flatness" refers to the fate of light beams travelling large distances parallel to each other. If the universe is "flat", the beams will always remain Parallel. Matter, Energy and Dark Energy all produce curvature in Space-Time, however. If the universe's space-time is positively curved, like the surface of a Sphere, parallel beams would come together. In a negatively curved, saddle-shaped universe, parallel beams would Diverge.

Thanks in part to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite, which revealed the density of matter and Dark Energy in the early universe, most astronomers are confident that the universe is flat. …

Recently I've been happy because a lot of male R&B singers stay successful with quality music, which is exactly what R&B is supposed to be. Each of the latest releases from major R&B artists, such as Musiq, Marques Houston, Tank and Joe, is very sophisticated, sensitive and lyrically melodious in the exactly opposite way of unmelodious crossovers like Crunk&B, and in addition to that, I've heard that they are all commercially successful as well.

It seems that a large part of R&B artists are recalling the reasonable way to take hip-hop into their music, not trying to be dirty or bling but just making good soul music with a bit of street flavors. The wording "good soul music with a bit of street flavors" really reminds me of R&B from the early and mid '90s, when the "hip-hop soul" was at its hottest.

But speaking of the '90s R&B, it's pretty sad for me to see that today there are just two male R&B groups that are contracted to major…